Pella’s Tulip Queens & Courts 1950-59
Queen Wilma VanZee Dykhuis (1950)
Court Members
Elisabeth Kempkes, Mildred VanderVeer, Nancy VanMannen, Carol Versteeg Manussier
Queen Carol Versteeg Manussier (1951)
Court Members
Elisabeth Kempkes, Marlene Sels, Retha VandeHaar, Dorothy VerMeer
Queen JoAnn Schagen DeBruin (1952)
Court Members
Barbara Buyert, Marlene Sels, Retha VandeHaar, LouAnn LeCocq Heene
Queen LouAnn LeCocq Heene (1953)
Court Members
Arlene Jellema VanGorp Thomas, Peggy Kuyper Pierson, Joyce Petersma, Martha VanEkeren
Queen Judy Cook Cunningham (1954)
Court Members
Bernice DeGeus, Eloise DeZwarte, Marsha Jansen, Sally Jo Verdught
Queen Gwenn VandenBerg Downey (1955)
Court Members
Ruth Dahn, Sara Gosselink, Lila Klein, Sandra Cummingham Swanson
Queen Sandra Cummingham Swanson (1956)
Court Members
Marleen Duven Rempe, Geraldine Rus, MaryLou TenHagen, Andrea Boat Roorda
Queen Andrea Boat Roorda (1957)
Court Members
Marleen Duven Rempe, Sharon Bakker, Bonnie DeJong, Evelyn Dykstra
Flower Girls
Anne Kuyper, Barbara Stults
Memories from Queen Andrea:
Five women on the court were chosen by popular ballot over a three-week period. There was a dinner at the Pella Country Club for the purpose of choosing the queen. After dinner, each candidate was taken to a room and interviewed by judges. After that, we went to Pella High School for the announcement of the queen to the people who had spent the evening watching a program of music and drama put on by various schools in the area. My court members were Marlene Duven Rempe, Sharon Bakker, Bonnie De Jong, and Evelyn Dykstra. Flower girls were Anne Kuyper and Barbara Stults.
We did some traveling between April 15 and Tulip Time, but there wasn’t time to do the amount of promotion that was done in later years. My court and I went to Des Moines to the Capitol Building to present a large pot of tulips to Governor Herschel Loveless and invite him to come to the Tulip Festival. We didn’t do much publicity as a court, but I attended several dinners and appeared on numerous radio and TV broadcasts prior to Tulip time.
The queen was crowned on Thursday after the parade on a stage built on the west side of the town square. Dr. T.G. Fultz, the festival Burgemeister, crowned the queen. Before the street scrubbing and the parade, all the school children participated in a musical entitled “A Helicopter Trip to Holland”. I wore a long white dress and a red velvet robe for the coronation. Dutch costumes were worn by each girl on the court for other occasions, but we each chose our own costume. Mine was from the province of Gelderland, because that was where the Boat (Boot) family came from.
The only official duties I remember during the festival were greeting the crowds from the top of what the Pella Chronicle described as “a float of unrivaled beauty,” speaking to the crowds each afternoon on the stage, and appearing at the performance of “Annie Get Your Gun” each evening at Central College. It rained all morning on Thursday of Tulip Time. The sun came out at noon and then the rain began again at 5:00 pm, just as the festivities concluded.
The 1957 Tulip Festival was a “stem festival”. It was a very warm spring, so the tulip were far ahead of schedule. The committee found a few tulips for my official portrait that were so far open that they looked like red poppies in the picture.
Queen Hilma Schagen Schakel (1958)
Court Members
Marla DeWild Larsen, Sandy Klein Heerema, Bonnie Kuyper, Retha Stursma
Queen Sandra Sels Kruse (1959)
Court Members
Shirley Groenendyk, Sandy Klein Heerema, Joan Nollen Nossaman, Marlyn VanEe Rietveld Ebbers
Pella Tulip Queens 